I’m delighted to welcome author D.T. Moorhouse to my blog today to chat about letters, gremlins and a battle to save the postboxes of Little Wobbleton.

Alice Fairchild has moved to the delightfully peculiar village of Little Wobbleton, where even the lamp posts seem alive. Alice discovers an old red postbox harbouring a secret society of gremlins who sort and deliver letters. When Alice learns of a plan to replace all the traditional postboxes in the village with modern Smart Drop Off Points, the gremlins’ entire way of life is threatened. With courage and creativity, Alice launches a heartfelt campaign to save them, discovering the power of community, memory, and the written word along the way.

Dear…

When did you last write a proper letter? Not a text message or an email. Not even a quick note scribbled on the back of something. A real letter. One that begins with “Dear…” and ends with a proper sign off. One that you have to write out, fold carefully, put into an envelope, address and stamp – that someone else can hold in their hands long after you’ve written it.

There’s something rather special about letters. Perhaps it’s because writing one takes time. It takes heart. You have to stop and think about what you want to say. You can’t rely on an emoji to explain how you feel. You can’t simply press delete and pretend you never wrote it.

And once a letter has been sent, it begins a journey. Somewhere, someone is carrying your words. Someone will open the envelope. Someone will read the things you decided were important enough to put on paper.

That’s the magic Alice Fairchild discovers when she moves to Little Wobbleton. Alice writes letters to her mother. At first they’re simply a way to stay connected. But after Alice discovers the gremlins living inside Postbox 27, she begins to understand that letters can carry more than words. They can carry excitement, memories and apologies, hopes, worries and love. And for the gremlins, a letter isn’t just an envelope with an address on it. Every letter has a feeling attached to it and sometimes that feeling is every bit as important as the words inside.

That’s why Alice becomes so determined to save the old postboxes when the village council decides they are no longer needed. Because she knows that Postbox 27 isn’t simply a rusty old box standing on Muddlesworth Lane. It’s a place for people’s stories to pass through. A place where messages travel from one person to another. And, most importantly, a place where feelings that are sometimes difficult to say aloud can find their way home.

In a world of disappearing messages and instant notifications, maybe a lot can be said about slowing down and allowing someone to wait for your words, and about holding a letter and knowing that, for a little while, someone’s thoughts travelled all that way to you. 

And somewhere, in a rattling old postbox, a tiny green-skinned gremlin is always making sure your words arrive safely.

Grebs & Co is published by Everything With Words and is out now. Buy book Click on the link to buy Grebs & Co from Bookshop.org.

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